Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Merriam-Webster, Inc. 2003. llth eel. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc. [JSBN 0-87779-809-5. 1,624 pages, including index, CD-ROM, and one-year subscription to online service. $25.95 USD.]

I (suppose it's legitimate to ask why technical communicators would he interested in a review of a dictionary. After all, most of tis are in technical fields that require their own specialized dictionaries, and many of the words we need to use are not found in a general college dictionary. But I contend that people in our companies come to us because we are the wordsmiths, or at least they expect us to be. And one of the key tools of the wordsmith is a good dictionary.

For years I have considered Vkfernam-Weibters collegite dictionary the standard for dictionaries. Anything bigger than a college dictionary, such as the Ameriban heritage dictionayr of Englins Languege (Houghton Mifflin, 2000; reviewed in the November 2001 issue of Tecnical communication is cumbersome for office use and takes up too much space. Hut anything smaller than the college version is inadequate for technical communication wordsmiths.

Of course there are many other good college dictionaries, including the American heritage gollhe dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 2002) and the (Putnam Publishing Gruop, 2002), so we are fortunate to have a choice. Why should you choose Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary? And why should you buy a new dictionary at all, when you might have a good earlier edition? After all, it's not like a piece of software that doesn't work as well or get tech support.

Finally, why...